Book Review – How To Win a Friend and Influence People

How to win friends – My Story

The first time I read “How to win friends and influence people” December 2016. For a book that has been around as far back as 1936, It had a profound effect on me – despite the fact that I am a writer and have read many of books. Yes, it is a little old, and there is more up to date information on a few of the subjects in other books, it contains real help for all sorts of circumstances – whether networking, marketing or settling disputes. How to Win Friends and Influence People had an enormously positive influence on my life. When I was growing, I was filled with a lot of social tension and was remarkably uncomfortable socializing with people outside of my immediate social circle – and seldom even nervous communicating within that circle. Over a duration of about seven months, I used the concepts in this book to become considerably more sociable, even to the level of being able to talk in a room full of people and efficiently carry on active discussions with possible associates. I can’t even perhaps guess how valuable the content of this book has been over the last seven months to me.

Credits: Compfight

Mine has 249 pages. And when you imagine a “self-help” manual that is that large, you might flinch. I know I did at first. But eventually it got to the time where I understood I had to read it, so I cooked myself and kicked off.
I was very agreeably astonished to discover that it was a remarkably enjoyable read! He fills the book with many incidents and stories so that you are relaxed while you learn. I’m always in the mood for edutainment. It ends up being a pretty swift and painless read. I did a LOT of indicating and note making. I also used a pen as my bookmark so; I could associate with the book. It happened that that, really helped me grasp the ideas. The book is an eye opener.

Twelve Things you can profit from reading this book

A section which originally included in the 1936 edition as a single page list, which introduced the main content of the book, exposing a prospective reader what to anticipate from it. The 1981 edition overlooks details 6 to 8 and 11.

1. Get you out of a mental pattern, give you new thoughts, new concepts, new objectives.
2. Enable you to make friends quickly and easily.
3. Increase your popularity.
4. Help you to win people to your way of thinking.
5. Increase your influence, your prestige, your ability to get things done.
6. Equips you to gain new clients, new consumers.
7. Increase your earning power.
8. Makes you a better salesperson, a better administrator.
9. Help you to handle complaints, avoid arguments, keep your human contacts smooth and pleasant.
10. Make you a better speaker, a more entertaining conversationalist.
11. Make the principles of psychology easy for you to apply in your daily contacts.
12. Help you to arouse enthusiasm among your associates.

Some quotes from the book made me realize I was selfish and it was the primary reason why I was finding it difficult to grow my business. I was more concerned about people’s interest in my services than I was concerned about their needs and I was always trying to tell people about myself, my qualification and stuff I thought could draw their attentions to me but it never worked instead they get bored. I look at this quotes every morning and since as a freelancer I have to do a lot of persuasions every day to get jobs. I needed to understand how the code of persuasion and communication works (Real, lasting achievement, I presume, comes from the understanding of how to communicate with people.) and there in the book I found that quote that changed my approach, before then I had only made $30 in four weeks freelancing. This wasn’t good for me; I was tired of the whole freelancing thing. I wanted to give up “but to start what?” I asked myself, surprisingly after I changed my approach I earned $500 in a week. And here’s my favorite quote. “Personally I am very fond of strawberries and cream, but I have found that for some strange reason, fish prefer worms. So when I went fishing, I didn’t think about what I wanted. I thought about what they wanted. I didn’t bait the hook with strawberries and cream. Rather, I dangled a worm or grasshopper in front of the fish and said:

“Wouldn’t you like to have that?”

“Why not use the same common sense when fishing for people?”

The author of How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936), a bestseller that remains popular today., Dale Harbison Carnegie (November 24, 1888 – November 1, 1955) was an American lecturer, writer and the developer of famous courses in self-development, salesmanship, corporate coaching, public speaking, and interpersonal abilities. Born on a farm in Missouri into poverty, He also wrote How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1948), Lincoln the Unknown (1932), and various other books.

Verdict – Is is Worth Your Money?

If you sometimes have the problem interacting with other people or carrying on discussions, buy How to Win Friends and Influence People instantly. Spend some time exercising every single one of the points. You’ll soon find yourself discussing with people instead of being shy or embarrassed, just because you have few good concepts on how to begin and how to keep it running. Don’t bother about it being dated; the basics of human synergy are timeless and the reason this book has remained in print for over seventy years is that it works. It served for me, at least. Please, read this book soon.